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Show 248 ON THE SLAVERY AND CoMMERCe of the fame parentage with himfelf, but as an animal if the brute creation ? But the moll: important doctrine is that, by which we are alfured that mankind arc to exifl: in a future fl:ate, and to give an account of thofe actions, which they have feverally done in the flelh. This ll:rikes at the very root of flavery. For how can any man be jull:ly called to an account for his actions, who[e actions are not at his ow11 difpqfal? This is the caft: with the ·*' projm· flave. His liberty is abfolutely bought and appropriated; and if the purchafe is jujl a'ld tquitable, he is under the neufjity of perpetrating any crime, which 'the purchafer may order him to commit, or, in other words, of ceafing to be accountable .for his aCliom. The{e doctrines therefore arc fufficient to Jhew, that flavery is incompatible with the : ~,he African nave is of this delcription; and we could w11h, mall our arguments on the prefent fubj cEI:, to be underflood as having fpoken only of proper Jla-:m. The flavc who i~ condemne~ t_o the oar, to the fortifications, and other publick works, ts m a different predicament, His liberty is not ~ppropriattd, and _therefore none of thofe confequences can he JUftly drawn, whtch have been deduced in the prefent cafe. Chrifiia11 OF THE HuMAN SPECIES. 249 Chriftian fyftem. The Ew·opeans confidered them as fuch, when, at the clofe of the twelfth century; they refifted their hereditary prejudices, and occafioned its abolition. Hence one, among many other proofs, that Chriftianity was the production of infinite wifdom; that though it did not take fuch exprefs cognizance of the wicked national infiitutions of the times, as 01ould hinder its reception, it 010uld yet contain fuch doctrines, as, when it lhould be fully ell:abli01ed, would be fufficient for the abolition of them all. Thus then is the argument of you receivers ineffectual, and your conduct impious. For, by the profecution of this wicked flavery and commerce, you not only oppofe the propagation of that gofpel which was ordered to be preached unto every creature, and bring it into contempt, but you oppofe its tenets alfo : firft, becaufe you violate that law of univerjid benevolence, which was to take away thofe hateful difiinctions of J~ and Gentile, Greek and Barbarian, bond andfree, which prevailed when the gofpel was introduced; and fecondly, becaufe, as every |
